governments, may be re-established within said States, or, in any
of them; and while the mode presented is the best the Executive
can suggest, with his present impressions, it must not be
understood that no other possible mode would be acceptable.

Given under my hand at the City of Washington, the eighth day of
December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of
America, the eighty-eighth.

[L. S.]

By the President: Abraham Lincoln.
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State.

How the revolted States could be most successfully and
expeditiously restored to their constitutional relations to the
Union on the cessation of hostilities, was the momentous question
of the hour, upon which there were views and schemes as varied
and antagonistic as were the mental differences and political
disagreements of those who felt called upon to engage in the
stupendous work. As history had recorded no similar conditions,
and therefore no demand for the solution of such a problem, there
were no examples or historic lights for the guidance of those
upon whom the task had fallen.

It is apparent that Mr. Lincoln maintained the indestructibility
of the States and the indivisibility of the Union--that the
resolutions of secession were null and void, and that the States